C-SPANAbraham LincolnAbraham Lincoln today came out with its second Historians Survey of Presidential Leadership, in which a cross-section of 65 presidential historians ranked the 42 former occupants of the White House on ten attributes of leadership.

Just in time for President's Day, the survey is C-SPAN's second since 2000.

The top five: Lincoln, Washington, Franklin Roosevelt, Theodore Roosevelt and Harry Truman, in that order.

George W. Bush finished in 36th place, two notches below Herbert Hoover, long blamed for doing too little to stymie the Great Depression.

The results are destined to trigger a new rouTheodore RooseveltTheodore Rooseveltnd of debate and controversy. Case in point: Ronald Reagan checks in at 10th place while John F. Kennedy's abbreviated presidency was rated sixth-best, just out of the running for top five.

The practice of presidential ratings by historians has a long history and dates back to at least 1948 with a survey conducted by historian Arthur M. Schlesinger Sr. of Harvard.

In the latest poll by C-SPAN, Bill Clinton who was ranked 21 in the 2000 survey, advanced six spots in 2009 to an overall ranking of 15; Reagan moved from 11 to 10; George H.W. Bush went from 20 to 18, and Jimmy Carter’s ranking declined from 22 to 25.

From a C-SPAN news release:

As in 2000, C-SPAN was guided in this effort by a team of academic advisors: Dr. Douglas Brinkley, Professor of History at Rice University; Dr. Edna Greene Medford, Associate Professor of History, Howard University; and Richard Norton Smith, Scholar in Residence at George Mason University. The team approved the ten criteria, which were the same used in C-SPAN’s 2000 Survey, reviewed the list of invited participants, and supervised the reporting of the results.  Harvey C. Mansfield, William R. Kenan, Jr., Professor of Government at Harvard, also consulted on the names of invited historians with an overall goal of geographic, demographic, and ideological diRonald ReaganRonald Reaganversity.

“Bill Clinton and Ulysses S. Grant aren't often mentioned in the same sentence - until now.  Participants in the latest C-SPAN survey of presidential historians have boosted each man significantly higher than in the original survey conducted in 2000. All of which goes to show two things: the fluidity with which presidential reputations are judged, and the difficulty of assessing any president who has only just recently left office,” said Richard Norton Smith.

“As much as is possible, we created a poll that was non-partisan, judicious and fair minded, and it’s fitting that for the 200th birthday of Abraham Lincoln that he remains at the top of these presidential rankings,” noted Dr. Douglas Brinkley.

“How we rank our presidents is, to a large extent, influenced by our own times. Today’s concerns shape our views of the past, be it in the area of foreign policy, managing the economy, or human rights.  The survey results also reinforce the idea that history is less about agreed-upon facts than about perceptions of who we are as a nation and how our leaders have either enhanced or tarnished that image we have of ourselves. Lincoln continues to rank at the top in all categories because he is perceived to embody the nation’s avowed core values: integrity, moderation, persistence in the pursuit of honorable goals, respect for human rights, compassion; those who collect near the bottom are perceived as having failed to uphold those values,” concluded Dr. Edna Medford.